Santulli enterostomy revisited: indications in adults

Surgical patients frequently need some type of intestinal stomas for a wide spectrum of disorders. Maintaining effective and enough decompression of gastrointestinal tract, securing distal bowel segments and anastomosis are the primary goals of ostomy formation as well as providing a minimum complication rate of closure or "take-down".

In this report, we present five adult patients who were operated for some kind of intestinal disease and required enterostomy. We preferred Santulli type of enterostomy which was formerly used by pediatric surgeons. In this technique, the proximal afferent bowel is fashioned into a stoma and anastomosed side-to-end with double layer sutures into the distal efferent bowel.

One of the five patients died of systemic problems, other four did well in terms of surgical outcome of the stoma.

We concluded that; although indications are limited, Santulli enterostomy can be performed in adult patients as effective as pediatric age group, particularly for its advantages in early restoration of intestinal continuity and diminished risk for post-closure complications.